Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We wil have a look today at the Grizzly Trail artwork that was revealed in the Parks and Resorts pavilion at the D23 Expo, thanks to great high-res pictures shoot by Andy Castro.

Grizzly Trail will be one of the three new lands of HKDL and with the Grizzly Peak attraction it will be an interesting new version of a "Frontierland" theming. Before i go further i want to warn you that there will be major spoilers all along the article. If you don't want to know anything about the storyline, this is definitely not the right article! Also, click on each pictures to see them in big and explore details.

Here we go for the artwork, and i've also included new pictures of the Grizzly Trail model and my own comments on the renderings. Note that this time i have to speculate a bit on what is suppose to happen as i was not at D23 and didn't had an Imagineer to give me details on the attraction. So, very probably, the renderings below won't be in the right "order" of the different scenes of the ride.

This first artwork show the Grizzly Peak entrance. note that the whole area seems to have pine trees all around.

In this next scene we see the train going up the hill to enter the mine...

...where riders will encounter a first Grizzly bear. As you can see the train is arriving at an intersection where a bear scratching his back on the track switch will direct the train to the "dangerous" tunnel 4.

More sketches were done for that scene, here they are.

Here is a small maquette of that scene.

Also interesting is the scene small model. Apparently, when the train will turn left in the tunnel 4 it will go down at high speed.

Talking about the train, it's time to show you the model of one of the vehicles.

In this next scene - which i remind you won't be necessarily the one that will be after the previous one - the train is going up at high speed inside the mine, and it seems that the train will have then an outside drop.

Another interesting scene with the bears is this one where guests will see a Grizzly bear aboard a mine wagon trying in an unstable position to catch fishes...

Probably a few meters ahead, the next scene will show the mine wagon and the bear with the fishes all around his neck, a little bit groggy by the shock...

More sketches for this funny sequence. Talking about bears, theese one will be obviously audio-animatronics and i'm curious to know if WDI Imagineers will use the AA skeletons of the former DL Country Bear Jamboree bears. That would make sense, don't you think?

I'm not sure that the next artwork will show what happen next in the ride, but it's an interesting one as we can see the train going down at high speed and backward.

As we will see soon there will be lot of little geysers in the Grizzly Trail area, and the train will go through this area.

In this next scene the train is entering backward another mine tunnel - note all the dynamite and "powder" sign at the entrance, it will be important for the next scene...

...where the train will literally be catapulted out of another tunnel thanks (probably) to a supposed dynamite blast. It's also possible that this scene will be the beginning of the ride as it seems there will be a catapult launching...

This next rendering include different elements of the bears scenes all in one artwork.

Next picture shows the Grizzly Peak model with the train going up the first lift.

And this one show - i think - the part of the ride with the two tunnels and dynamite blast.

But there will be more in the Grizzly Trail area than the Grizzly Peak ride as a small town will be build. But for the first time in all Frontierland's history, this one will be full of fun water splash...

...most of them interactive...

...and a little geyser area.

Let's end this last HKDL artwork article with more pictures of the model.

All artwork: copyright Disney - Disney Enterprises.

Important Note: Due to the quality of the pictures above, i want to remind you as it is written on the "terms of use" page that, in the event you download any material from The Disney and more blog, the download of the material, including any files or images must be for your personal, non-commercial home use only. You may not and cannot sell, print or reproduce in any way any material downloaded from The Disney and more blog, and specifically any material copyright Disney , Walt Disney company or any other companies.

If you notice the bear reaching for the fish, a small bear-cub behind him is about to push down on some TNT. In the same picture, the train is surrounded by dynamite... I think it'd make much more sense for this to be the "launch" scene.

I think this looks amazing! However, it reminds me a lot of Expedition Everest. So what concerns me, is if your moving so fast you can't really admire all of the scenery and animatronics. A for effort though!

This ride had elements of The late Disneyland ride Rainbow Cavern Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and the never built Marc Davis ride Western River Expedition, yet original. Would love to ride this one.

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